The Quiet Season

Advice from the top on taking time off and coming back

To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, to every workout, there is a season. Most runners instinctively grasp this concept, or if they don’t, soon have the lesson imparted the hard way, suffering injury, illness, or simple burnout if they fail to include some sort of downtime in their yearly schedule.

In some parts of the country, a relative competitive hiatus is imposed by the weather; in the northern winters and southern summers, the race calendar becomes sparse, and most runners throttle back accordingly, into a mode of easy maintenance mileage. And even in those temperate parts of the country where it’s possible to race and train hard year-round, either the body or the psyche will eventually beg for, and sometimes demand, a period of easy running. "No matter what level you’re at, a substantial rest period at least once a year is essential," says Alan Culpepper, the top American in this year’s Boston Marathon.

Many times, the typical scenario is dictated by a combination of the competitive and temporal calendars: a runner will peak for a fall marathon or a big Thanksgiving race, then spend the time until Christmas replenishing carbohydrate reserves with holiday cookies. The reduced daylight and increased social demands of the holidays make it even more tempting to do little or nothing in terms of substantial training until late December, when pre-New Year’s resolutions to get back into shape in time for the spring racing season take on the urgency of last-minute shopping.

Given the wisdom, and even inevitability, of an off season, a runner needs to determine not only its duration, but what to do during it, balancing the need for recovery with the desire to retain as much of the previous season’s hard-won fitness as possible. Fortunately, the experience of many elite runners and their coaches indicates that’s not as difficult a task as it might seem.

After a peak race, marathoner Scott Larson will take two to three weeks completely off from running. "You need to take a mental break. Do things you normally wouldn’t or couldn’t do when you’re in intense training," says Larson, who spends the time biking or skiing. Deena Kastor, the American record holder in the marathon, follows a similar approach. "I try to follow a schedule that’s different than when I’m in training, so when it’s time to go back I’m energized and excited," she says. "Sleep in, eat a big breakfast, do some gym routines you wouldn’t do during your training phase," while trying to do some non-running exercise to get the blood pumping through your muscles to remove toxins and waste products.

Kevin Hanson, who with his brother Keith coaches the Hansons-Brooks Olympic Distance Project, advocates getting in the pool, not only to the elite ODP members but to the hundreds of runners who come to one of their four suburban Michigan stores for advice. "The buoyancy of the water takes a load off your joints and muscles, while allowing you to maintain or even improve your active range of motion."

Like Larson, Hanson advises runners coming off a peak performance, especially a marathon, to take several weeks off from running. "You want to be cautious about starting back too soon," he says. "Fortunately you can be, since you’ll retain a lot of your pre-race fitness, which was probably at a personal high level. It’s not like you’re completely starting from scratch." You may lose your hard-earned edge, but not the base of fitness you’ve developed underneath it over the years, and the edge can be built back quickly.

On the other hand, if you’re afraid your fitness level will fall drastically during your break, take solace in the fact that your return to running will bring immediate returns. "The worse shape you’re in, the more you get back from your training," says Jack Daniels, long-time coach and author of the two Running Formula books that bear his name. "It’s the other end of the principle of diminishing returns." Daniels recommends using the off season for work on improving flexibility and overall body strength, to improve performance and make yourself more resistant to injury. "You want to work on your weaknesses rather than your strengths," he says.

Culpepper notes that his recovery period has shrunk from almost four weeks when he was just out of college to two now, unless there’s an injury that requires more rest. "I think there’s a window of time that you can do nothing before you start to lose aerobic fitness," he says. Other aerobic activities than running can help maintain this base; Culpepper himself does cross training and has benefited tremendously from doing light drills—single leg squats, lunges, and basic core strength exercises. "My legs feel a lot fresher when I finally do start running," he says.

When your mind and body tell you it’s time to lace up your shoes and head out the door, take things easy, at least for a few weeks. "I start by just jogging for 20 minutes every other day, maybe working up to half an hour by the end of the week," says Larson. The following week, he’ll get his long run up to 45 minutes, "and then I’m ready to jump back into regular training." For those first weeks back, Larson cautions, "don’t take it real seriously—stay in the mindset of just jogging," a sentiment Culpepper echoes. "You don’t want the mental burden of doing hard workouts at this point," he says.

Your first weeks back should not only be low in intensity, but volume as well. How much to run is an individual issue: While Larson gets back to his 100-plus miles a week fairly quickly, Culpepper sticks to the more traditional gradual progression of adding no more than 15 to 20 percent a week. Daniels proposes another approach: run consistent mileage for two to four weeks before moving up. "My approach is to impose a stress, then let the body adapt to it," he says. "If you’ve done no running for a couple of weeks, even 20 miles will be a big jump. But how much benefit will you get by adding two or three miles a week? You might be better off running 20 for a couple weeks until that feels easy, then going to 30, and holding that."

Depending on your racing and training schedule for the upcoming season, your off-season may last several weeks or even months before more serious, structured workouts begin. Continue with the easy running, but add two or three weekly sessions of strides, either during or after your runs, to maintain leg turnover and flexibility. "Doing strides will make it a lot easier when you start the faster stuff later on," says Hanson.

You can also do an occasional session of some faster running on days when you feel good. Culpepper’s first forays above simple base mileage tend toward some high aerobic work, "maybe easy tempo runs at marathon pace for two times 15 or 20 minutes. You certainly don’t want to do anything real fast or hard." Daniels recommends fartlek as an ideal transition workout. "It’s non-structured, so you can go as you feel, without the pressure of times on a measured course," he says, although "at some point, you’re going to have to face reality by going to a track and seeing what kind of shape you’re in."

Kastor, whose first workouts will be either a tempo or progression threshold run, feels these first workout serve as important benchmarks of where you are at in terms of your recovery fitness. "But it’s important to be non-judgmental. I’m as guilty as anyone about comparing them to previous runs, but you have to remember you’re at a different point in your training. Some people can be timid and increase their training too gradually, while others might rush back, thinking they’ve got to get in shape for the next season," says Kastor. "That’s where having a coach can be such a help."

If there’s a single principle about recovery and off-season training, it’s to listen to your body: Do enough to rebuild fitness, but don’t tire yourself out. "It’s a fine line you have to walk," says Culpepper. But if you can stay on that relatively narrow off-season path, it can make your possibilities for the next racing season that much more expansive.